Forum:28: Tainted Legacies
The group began their desperate return to Snezhny in an attempt to stop the creation of the Lumenium bomb "Baleine", apparently capable of destroying the whole of Snezhny through dispersed lumenation. En route, Lexington contacted Military Intelligence and found that Peter Gillis, whom the party had rescued from torture a month ago, had provided the Librennians with information about his fellow slavers. Apparently they were heading to Snezhny's Gray Peak on an invitation from the elves themselves, in order to broker a deal with Vavilov in which they would provide the elves with more slave labour in exchange for details concerning Vavilov's Neuroanatomical science. The slavers had been instructed to arrive on an unarmed ship, and would dock at Gray Peak unarmed themselves, making them extremely vulnerable to interception and assault. The Sagitta and its crew were thus more than a match for the unprepared slavers, and the party divested themselves of their magic items, arms and armour before proceeding into Gray Peak. Their objective was to try to find and disable Baleine if possible, or else find some means of disabling it if it was already gone. Upon arrival, they noted that the magical defences around the peak were strong, and the physical amounted to heavily armoured blast doors keeping unwelcome visitors from proceeding any further than the docking bay. A voice capable of some form of telepathic interference scanned the group for magic, and also made them leery of any attempt to even think thoughts that might give them away. Using a cover story prepared by Lexington, the group met Leonid Vavilov, and his latest "patient" Patrik, a docile drow man with a device attached to his head that appeared perfectly at ease in the home base of his ancestral enemies. Vavilov himself came across as a surprisingly affable and harmless man, and seemed to take great pride in the social good that his work was capable of. As the group spoke, it became apparent that he was unaware of the worst atrocities perpetrated by his people, and he claimed that his patients, many of them drow or dwarves, had come to him of their own volition for treatment. Also, he was aghast at the idea of installing explosives in a human body, suggesting that he was either blissfully unaware, or perhaps somehow using his technique on himself. As he explained, Neuroanatomy involves performing numerous small alterations to the brain through surgeries and implants, as well as psychological therapies, to enable patients to regulate or eliminate outright negative emotions such as fear and anger. He also said that he was witness to a case of an abusive father who suffered an accidental head injury that caused him to become a peaceful and loving man, and this made him want to understand more about the nature of the physical body's impact on the mind. As he proceeded through the base, explaining bits and pieces of his practice and his procedure, the group learned that the bomb was being constructed nearby but Vavilov was leading the group away from it. As they were under armed escort, the group opted to continue with the demonstration, and Vavilov provided Ten-Tongues with a chart detailing a patient history, in which it was apparent that the surgery could not only remove certain emotions but enhance others. To finish the tour and make one more attempt at salesmanship, Vavilov showed the group a technology enabled by his neuroanatomical science that he believed would revolutionize the elven society. He then showed the group a secure room with a series of tanks in which new homunculus-elves were being "grown" to act as soldiers in the Snezhnian army, and to demonstrate the possibilities from this technologies, he showed the group one of his earlier and most famous creations, a soldier grown to develop an unfailing sense of loyalty, while at the same time designed to act in the nation of Librem as a spy before returning to Snezhny to carry out his true objectives. At this point, the traitor was revealed to be Deodin, and Lexington immediately recognized the description, bearing, and voice of his father underneath the lion mask. At this point, Genbu intervened both to admire the "divine torment" of Lexington facing his traitorous father, and then offered the group the option of taking either Lexington Junior or Senior with them into Negative Space in order to escape Gray Peak. After much soul-searching, the group elected to bring their comrade with them and leave D1 in the hands of the elves. To escape Gray Peak, Genbu mutated the realm of Negative Space to allow the group to pass through the walls, only barring their progress forward with either riddles to solve or demons to destroy. When the party found the room where the bomb was being constructed, they learned that it was being constructed in pieces and sent off-site to a cavern under lake Zildova, and that it could be armed with a passcode typed into a mechanical number pad. The code could be used to arm the bomb or, crucially, cause it to self-destruct and destroy the Lumenium contained therein without dispersing it into the environment, rendering the bomb useless. Furthermore, an erroneous passcode could be used to disarm the bomb, preventing it from being a threat in the short term. On departure, the group located the maplewood metronome that Jack asked them to recover, but as there was still a significant guard presence in Gray Peak they opted to leave it for the time being. They also found the gigantic Dedva, who Lexington identified as Cartier, the other traitor. Through listening to his half of a discussion with Deodin, it was apparent that he was loyal to the senior Lexington alone and followed him to Snezhny of his own volition. The group departed from Gray Peak thereafter, sabotaging boats to eliminate the threat of pursuers, and leaving notes for D1 and D2 concerning the group's certainty that they had also been rigged with explosives. The group thus managed to escape with little trouble, and after consoling the scarred Lexington, they returned to the Sagitta, where they explained everything. Captain Plunkett's response to the new revelations was to attempt to arrest Lexington and cancel the operation, given that he was now host to a potentially compromised agent and no other available military authority was going to make the call about this operation. However, with a hasty call to Director Harper, she approved the continuation of the operation and told Lexington to proceed with the next operation: the destruction of Baleine. Rewards: 10,000 exp each for events transpiring to now.